kettle

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A metal pot, usually with a lid, for boiling or stewing.
2. n. A teakettle.
3. n. Music A kettledrum.
4. n. Geology A depression left in a mass of glacial drift, formed by the melting of an isolated block of glacial ice.
5. n. A pothole.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A vessel of iron, copper, tin, or other metal, of various shapes and dimensions, used for boiling or heating water and other liquids, or for cooking vegetables, etc., by boiling. Compare camp-kettle, tea-kettle.
2. n. A tin pail. [Local, U. S.] A kettledrum.
3. n. figuratively, a cavity or depression suggesting the interior of a kettle. Specifically — A hole in the ground in deep water, in which carp huddle together during winter in a kind of hibernation, In geology, any cavity, large or small, in solid rock or detrital material, which resembles a kettle in form. “The kettle” of the Sierra Nevada is about a mile across the top and 1,600 feet deep. Small cavities worn in rock by the revolutions of a stone in a swift current arc of frequent occurrence, varying from a few inches to several feet in diameter and depth. Cavities of this kind are more commonly known as pot-holes, and sometimes as giants' kettles. (See also blocking-kettle.)
4. n. Same as kiddle
5. A variant of kittle.

Wiktionary

1. n. A vessel for boiling a liquid or cooking food, usually metal and equipped with a lid.
2. n. The quantity held by a kettle.
3. n. UK A vessel for boiling water for tea; a teakettle.
4. n. geology A kettle hole, sometimes any pothole.
5. n. ornithology A collective term for a group of raptors riding a thermal, especially when migrating.
6. n. rail transport, slang A steam locomotive
7. n. music A kettledrum.
8. v. UK, of the police To contain demonstrators in a confined area.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A metallic vessel, with a wide mouth, often without a cover, used for heating and boiling water or other liguids.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a large hemispherical brass or copper percussion instrument with a drumhead that can be tuned by adjusting the tension on it
2. n. the quantity a kettle will hold
3. n. a metal pot for stewing or boiling; usually has a lid
4. n. (geology) a hollow (typically filled by a lake) that results from the melting of a mass of ice trapped in glacial deposits